A Trip Down Memory Lane
by x-BlackButterfly-x
Summary: For the Zosan coffee shop AU project on tumblr and is open to constructive criticism. Zoro and Sanji reminisce about some of the key points in their relationship which coincidently all happened at the same place.


The Going Merry, a small, lively coffee shop in the middle of the city. This is where one green-haired man is heading right now. It's mid-afternoon and Roronoa Zoro is walking down the busy streets of trying to find this important coffee shop.

He's late. Not because he's lost. It's obviously because the streets keep moving. Someone's definitely doing this on purpose to mess with him, and unfortunately for them, this fitness trainer is on to them. But for now, he's determined to get to The Going Merry.

This place is important to him as it changed his life completely. Well, it was actually one blonde, shitty-cook which changed his life but the coffee shop has become a large part of their lives, and is where most of their shared memories took place.

Cursing, Zoro picks up his pace, accidently bumping into a few other people who are scurrying along, and finally finds himself outside The Going Merry.

The place isn't busy today and straight away he spots the man he is meeting. That head full of blonde hair unmistakably belongs to none other than Sanji, his boyfriend. As usual, the cook is casually sitting at a table in the corner of the room by one of the windows and is sipping his coffee. He's wearing the same suit as always and Zoro can tell by the way the blonde is tapping his right foot on the floor rapidly that the shit-cook is more than a little angry by his lateness.

Sighing, the fitness trainer opens the door, the chime of the bell announcing his arrival, and walks over to the table at which his boyfriend is sitting.

"You're late marimo," The blue visible eye of the cook's follows Zoro's every move as the fitness trainer sits down opposite him, cringing slightly at the screech of the chair scrapping against the tiled floor.

"Let me guess. The streets moved again."

"Shut up shit-cook, I'm here now."

"Yeah. Two hours late. Again."

Sanji glares at him from across the table until Nami comes over diverting his attention, "Nami-Swan~! It's been so long since I've seen you~! You look as beautiful as ever~!"

The orange-haired beauty scoffs and rolls her eyes, "You saw me ten minutes ago when I brought over your coffee. Are you ordering anything Zoro? And don't take too long to decide, I've left Luffy at the counter, and he'll only start eating everything if we leave him alone for too long."

"I'll just have a bacon sandwich."

"No drink?" Nami asks as she notes down Zoro's order on her notepad.

"No thanks. I'll have some of curly-brow's coffee."

"Like hell you will!" Sanji snaps, being brought out of his daze by Zoro's words.

Nami laughs as they keep arguing and turns back to the counter, "Luffy! Get those grubby hands of yours away from the cakes!"

"Shishishishi, sorry~!"

Zoro reaches over the table for Sanji's coffee but the blonde quickly picks it up and holds it out of his reach, "Let me have some."

"No, you should have ordered your own!"

Zoro scoffs and sits back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest, "Whatever. I didn't want any anyway."

"If you say so….Why did you bring me out here? You know I'm busy today at the Baratie."

"What? Can't I meet up for lunch with my boyfriend anymore?"

"Lunch was hours ago shit-head."

A comfortable silence pursues as Sanji sips his coffee and Usopp comes out of the kitchen to bring out Zoro's sandwich. Once the long-nosed man has gone, the fitness trainer takes a bite of his food, "Oi, cook."

"Don't talk with food in your mouth, it's disgusting."

"Whatever. Do you remember when we first met?" Intrigued, Sanji raises his curled eyebrow as he takes another sip of his drink, "Why are you asking that all of a sudden?"

"No reason….Do you remember though?"

"Of course I remember. I had to pay for your coffee..."

_Sanji had decided to have his lunch at The Going Merry after a tiring morning working at the Baratie. The coffee shop is quite a few blocks away from the restaurant but it is definitely worth the trip. They have amazing coffee and great food. For Sanji, the best part about coming here is their beautiful employee, Nami. _

_The blonde had memorised her shifts and always tries to be here when she's working. He hopes that one day she'll eventually say yes to going on a date with him. _

_Today, Usopp is behind the counter and Sanji would have made it back to the Baratie by now, but the guy in front of him has been chatting to the curly-haired man for ages, holding up the queue._

_Frustrated, the blonde absentmindedly taps his right foot on the floor and constantly glances to the clock on the wall. _

"_Ok Zoro, that'll be £3.50."_

_Snapping his head back up, he growls quietly as the man in front of him takes his time in patting down his pockets. _

"_Ah…uh…sorry Usopp, I think I've left my wallet in my locker again…"_

_Usopp sighs and bites his lip, "I would let you pay next time, but Nami's gotten stricter on making sure people pay straight away. We've had a few people say they'd come back and pay but they never did. I know you wouldn't do that but…"_

"_It's fine. Forget it. I'll just skip on the coffee today."_

"_I'll pay for it," Sanji interrupts, placing his money on the counter, "And I'll have my usual please Usopp."_

_Usopp grins and starts making Sanji's coffee, "Sure, thanks Sanji!"_

"_Oi. What are you doing curly?"_

"_Curly?!" The blonde screeches and snaps his head towards the man beside him, "I'm helping you out marimo! Be grateful!"_

"_Don't call me marimo! And I don't need you to pay for my drink! I said I'd leave it!"_

"_Like hell you will! I won't let you waste a perfectly good coffee! And you were holding up the queue! So shut up, take it, and go!"_

"_Uh...Um… guys?!" Usopp raises his voice then squeaks as Sanji and Zoro snap their deadly glares towards him, "P-people are waiting…"_

"_Sorry Usopp." Sanji takes his change and his coffee, hearing the green haired man mumble an apology beside him, then heads to the door._

"_Oi, wait!" _

_Turning back around, the man from before glances away and rubs the back of his neck, indicating to the empty table beside him, "Want to join me?"_

"_Why would I want to join you?" He snaps, still irritated at being held up, even though he didn't have to get back to the restaurant yet._

_The green haired man glares at him then sits down at the table, "Whatever. I was only asking. It's the only table left."_

_Glancing around, Sanji notices that the man is right, all the other seats and tables are taken. Was the marimo being considerate? He was planning on just going straight back to work, but at checking the time and seeing that he has over an hour left of his two hour lunch break, he decides to join the green-haired man._

_Not saying a word, Sanji sits opposite the other guy and sips his coffee._

"_Zoro."_

_At hearing the others voice, he glances over to him, "What?"_

"_Zoro. My name is Zoro."_

_Even though he has no idea why the marim- Zoro, is starting up a conversation with him, he decides to comply anyway, not wanting to seem rude, "I'm Sanji."_

_Zoro nods and sips his drink, "On a lunch break?"_

"_Yeah. You?"_

"_Yeah."_

_Feeling a little uncomfortable and awkward, Sanji fiddles with the lighter in his trouser pocket and softly chews on his lip._

"_Where do you work, curly?"_

"_Oi don't call me curly!" Sanji snaps, "And if you must know, I work as the sous-chef at the Baratie."_

"_Ah, so you're a cook."_

_The blonde grits his teeth and grips his coffee a little tighter, "No, I'm a chef."_

"_A cook." Zoro nods with a small smirk._

_Not rising to the bait, the blonde sips his drink, hiding his irritation, "What do you do?"_

"_I'm a fitness trainer. Work at a gym on the other side of the city."_

"_What are you doing all the way over here then?"_

"_Coffee." The marimo, replies, slightly raising his cup._

"_Idiot, I can see that. I mean why are you out here and not at a coffee shop near the gym?" _

"_It's better here. Plus my friends own the place."_

"_Ah, so you know Luffy too?"_

"_Yep… Ah shit, I have to go." Zoro quickly downs his coffee and gets up from his chair. Glancing to the blonde, Sanji notices that the man seems to come to a decision before swiftly grabbing a napkin and taking out a pen from his pocket._

"_What are you doing moss-head?"_

_The fitness trainer growls slightly at the nickname then hands him the napkin with a series of number written across it, "That's my number… if you want it..."_

_Sanji hides his smirk, by taking a sip of his drink, at seeing Zoro's cheeks turn slightly pink, and pockets the napkin._

"_You better hurry or you'll be late back to work, marimo."_

_At that, the green-haired man hurries out of the door and disappears from sight._

"Yeah I remember that too. But that's not it. We met once before that."

"What?! No we didn't!"

Zoro nods and starts on the second half of his sandwich, "We did, shit-cook. You obviously don't remember." Sanji looks at him confused and tries to recall if he met Zoro before he bought the man his coffee.

"Are you sure? I would have remembered your hideous green hair…"

"Oi… And yeah we did…"

_Quickly grabbing a few energy and protein bars, Zoro gets in the queue at the counter. It had taken him longer than usually to get to the coffee shop, the streets kept moving again, and now he's going to be late getting back to work if this line doesn't hurry up._

_A minute or two later he's finally at the counter and being served by Nami, "Is this all you're having today?"_

"_Yes. Now can you hurry, I'm going to be late."_

_Grinning, the orange haired women deliberately takes her time in looking over each item Zoro had picked, "Would you like a bag?"_

"_No."_

"_Ok. That'll be £15.90 please~"_

"_What?!" Zoro growls. "I had the same amount of these things yesterday and you've at least doubled the price I had to pay Usopp!"_

"_Well, Usopp's not here now is he?" Nami says with a smirk as she holds out the palm of her hand. The fitness trainer glares at the smirking women as he hands over the money and watches as she closes the till._

"_Oi. Where's my change?"_

"_It's going towards your debt."_

"_I don't have any debt."_

"_Your tab then."_

"_I paid my tab the other day!"_

"_Interest." Nami smiles sweetly as Zoro growls and glances to the clock, "Shit! I'm late!"_

"_Have a good day Zoro~!"_

_The fitness trainer rolls his eyes and pays no mind to the women as he dashes for the door. However, before he can make it there he bumps into someone and drops his protein and energy bars on the floor._

"_Watch where you're going shit-head!" The man yells and bends down, helping him pick up his things. Zoro stares at the man when he notices the strangely curled eyebrow and has a sudden urge to move those blonde bangs out his eye to see if the other one is the same._

"_Nami-Swan~! My precious flower~! Your prince is back~!"_

_Zoro stares dumbly as the blonde man rushes off to the counter and swoons over Nami. Blinking slowly, he suddenly remembers why he was rushing in the first place and hurries out the door._

"I don't remember that."

"Yeah, well, you were too busy swooning over the witch back there to take notice of me."

"Oi! Nami-San is not a witch!"

Zoro rolls his eyes and reaches for Sanji's coffee again only to get a kick to the shin. He glares at the blonde as the cook smirks and sips at the drink triumphantly. The fitness trainer sits back and glances around the room, "We've had a lot of good memories here."

"Yeah. Bad ones too…"

_The rain poured down from the grim, cloudy sky as Sanji ran to The Going Merry. Rushing in through the door, the bell chimes, and the door closes behind him as he pants and glances around. _

"_Oi! Shit-cook, over here!"_

_Sanji turns to the sound of the voice and spots Zoro sitting at a table in the corner of the room by the window. Sanji grins as he notices a coffee waiting for him and pulls off his soaked jacket then rolls up his shirt sleeves as he makes his way over to the table. Mumbling a thanks, he sits down opposite Zoro and drapes his jacket across the back of the chair beside him._

"_Sorry I'm late. My shitty old man kept me back to deal with a few customers. Ugh, this bloody shirt is sticking to me." Sanji sighs as he tugs at his shirt slightly then takes a sip of his coffee. He raises his eyebrow as he glances to Zoro, noticing the guy staring at him with a weird expression and a light blush on his face._

"_What? Are you hot or something?"_

_The fitness trainer quickly glances away and bites his lip, "N-no."_

"_What is it then? What was that look for?"_

"_Uh…I…"_

"_Zoro! Have you told Sanji you're leaving yet?!" Luffy bounds over to them excitedly with the ever present grin on his face._

"_Luffy! Get back here!" Usopp stomps over and drags Luffy away from their table by the back of his shirt._

"_You're leaving?!"_

"_Not so loud cook, you'll give me a headache."_

"_When are you leaving?"_

"_Tonight."_

"_Tonight?!"_

_The fitness trainer sighs and sips his coffee, "Yes."_

_The cook growls and grips his mug of coffee slightly, "What the hell moss-head? Why are you leaving? How long ago did you decide on this?"_

"_I'm going back to Japan. My farther needs help running the dojo. One of the teachers quit and he can't find anyone else to take over at short notice. I'm only there temporally, until he can find a replacement. I'll be there for at least two years to start with. I agreed two months ago… " _

"_And you're only telling me this now!"_

"_Sanji-kun~! Can you stop shouting please, you're disturbing the other customers~!" Nami sweetly shouts from her place at the counter._

"_Hai~ Nami-San~!"_

_Turning back to Zoro, the fitness trainer still won't look at him, "I'm sorry. I didn't know how to tell you."_

"_Obviously Luffy knows, but what about the others?"_

"_They already know."_

"_I'm the last one...?"_

"_Yeah…."_

_Sanji grits his teeth and gets up from his chair, grabbing his jacket._

"_Oi? Where are you going?"_

"_Home."_

"_What? Why?"_

"_Because someone who I thought was my friend decides to leave without telling me!"_

"_I haven't left yet and I just told you!" Zoro barks as he gets up from his chair and grabs Sanji's arm in an attempt to stop him from going._

"_Yeah! A few hours before you get on the fucking plane! Don't bother staying in contact with me." The cook growls as he yanks his arm out of Zoro's grip and heads out the door, back into the rain._

"Yeah, and I've apologised countless times for that."

"I know…"

Zoro reaches across the table and lightly squeezes Sanji's hands in a comforting manner. "How many times do I have to tell you, shit-cook? That time apart from you was hell and I regret leaving like that."

"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't have reacted that way."

"You had every right too."

This was no good. Zoro can't do what he came here for with the atmosphere like this. Needing to change the mood, he grins when he remembers the time he came home from Japan, "Hey. Remember when I came back?"

_Grinning, Zoro walks down the city streets. He is finally back home, and it's only been a year since he's been away. It didn't take as long as expected to find a replacement teacher for the dojo but Zoro had to stay an extra few month just in case the new teacher couldn't stick to the job._

_Before he left for Japan, he knew he'd fallen in love with Sanji and it hurt when the man refused to speak to him after that time at The Going Merry. _

_However, thankfully, two months after that incident, Sanji finally responded to his letters and they started talking on Skype. And although they did that often, the fitness trainer couldn't stand being away from the blonde. He never realised how much his life had been affected by the man until he'd left._

_Sanji doesn't know that he came back today, he wanted it to be a surprise. Usopp had texted him that Sanji was currently at the coffee shop and that he'd keep him there for as long as he could._

_Eventually he makes it to The Going Merry and easily spots the blonde cook sitting at the window. He notes that it's the same table they were at the last time he was here and walks in through the door._

_The cook is facing away from the door and doesn't turn around at hearing the chime of the bell. Zoro nods to Usopp and Luffy at the counter and the long-nose quickly covers Luffy's mouth before the other can shout out to him and ruin the surprise, then drags him into the kitchen out of the way._

_Suddenly feeling nervous, Zoro rubs the back of his neck and makes his way over to the blonde, "Is this seat taken?"_

_He watches in amusement as the cook flinches slightly, as he was obviously in his own little world, and slowly looks up at him, "Z-Zoro?"_

_The green-haired man grins and sits opposite Sanji, "Hey, shit-cook."_

_The unexpected pain to his ankle has him clutching it tightly, "What the hell was that for!?"_

"_You shitty bastard! Why didn't you tell me you were coming back today?!"_

"_I wanted to surprise you!"_

_Sanji scoffs and sips his coffee, mumbling quietly, "I'm glad you're back." _

_For the next few hours they sat there catching up - even though they didn't need to as they told each other everything in their skype sessions – until Usopp came over to their table, "It's great to have you back Zoro, but we need to close up."_

_Only now they notice that it is dark outside and that there is no one else in the coffee shop, just them and the employees, "Sorry Usopp, we'll go now."_

_They both get up and head for the exit, saying goodbye to Usopp and the others, then abruptly come to a stop once they are outside the door._

_A few seconds, which feel like minuets, pass as they stand there in silence. Only the sound of the late night traffic can be heard._

"_Well… I better get home. I'll see you here at lunch time tomorrow?" Sanji asks as he looks down at the paved street._

"_Yeah…"_

"_Ok…. Bye then."_

_Zoro bites his lip as the blonde turns to leave then quickly talks a hold of the cook's arm, spinning Sanji back around to face him, "Wait."_

"_What is it?"_

"_Um… I…" Not letting go of the others arm, Zoro rubs the back of his neck with his other hand then without thinking, he gently pulls Sanji closer and presses their lips together._

The cook smiles softly at the memory of their first kiss together and bites his lip, "Yeah. I remember. It wasn't long after that we started dating."

A cough interrupts them and the blonde looks up to see Usopp place a box of cupcakes onto their table. These particular cupcakes are his favourite, ones he often buys when he comes into this coffee shop. However that isn't what catches his eye. Written on them, in neat green icing are the words: Sanji, will you marry me?

"Ah, Usopp. I'm flattered really, but I'm in a relationship with moss-head here. I can't marry you."

"Oh… uh…. I didn't….it wasn't….I'm not…."

As the long-nosed man continues to stutter nonsense, Zoro glances away, oblivious to the smirk on Sanji's face.

"Idiot. Of course I'll marry you, Zoro."

The green-haired man stares at Sanji in confusion, as the blonde chuckles, "Did you really think I thought Usopp was proposing to me?"

Zoro blushes lightly. For a second there he really did think that, "You knew, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Why else would you suddenly be bringing up our past? And besides, Luffy told me."

"That bastard!" the fitness trainer grits his teeth as Usopp looks around for his co-worker, "Luffy!? You told Sanji that Zoro was going to propose to him!?

"Shishishishi! Sorry!" The laughter can be heard from behind the closed kitchen doors and the long-nosed man stomps off towards them at realising Luffy had moved from the counter already.

"You better not be eating anything in there!"

"I'mm mnot!" The muffled reply – obviously caused by talking with food in his mouth – angers Usopp even more.

"Luffy! I spent hours putting the icing on all those cakes!"

Sanji chuckles at hearing Usopp continue to scold Luffy in the kitchen.

"So… you'll marry me?"

"Of course you idiot," The blonde grins as he reaches over the table and softly presses his lips to Zoro's.


End file.
